New York TimesOp-Ed ColumnistWhy We RegulateBy PAUL KRUGMANPublished: May 13, 2012

One of the characters in the classic 1939 film “Stagecoach” is a banker named Gatewood who lectures his captive audience on the evils of big government, especially bank regulation — “As if we bankers don’t know how to run our own banks!” he exclaims. As the film progresses, we learn that Gatewood is in fact skipping town with a satchel full of embezzled cash.

As far as we know, Jamie Dimon, the chairman and C.E.O. of JPMorgan Chase, isn’t planning anything similar. He has, however, been fond of giving Gatewood-like speeches about how he and his colleagues know what they’re doing, and don’t need the government looking over their shoulders. So there’s a large heap of poetic justice — and a major policy lesson — in JPMorgan’s shock announcement that it somehow managed to lose $2 billion in a failed bit of financial wheeling-dealing.

Somehow the major banks are the largest contributors to the Obama campaign, he did bail them out, re-appointed Bernanke who is propping them up as much as possible etc. Seriously, there is little if any difference between Romney and Obama as far as Wall Street is concerned.